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ORGANISERS GUIDE FOR FUN IN THE AFTERNOON
January 2011
Jeremy Gibbons, Graham Hutton, Conor McBride
This document explains how to organise 'Fun in the Afternoon'.
It should answer most of the questions that you may have, but
please free to contact us if anything is not covered here.
Web page
--------
The web page contains details of all previous meetings,
and is available from: http://sneezy.cs.nott.ac.uk/fun/
Mailing list
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The mailing list (fun@cs.nott.ac.uk) is used to advertise the
meetings, solicit talks, and ask for opinions on dates. The
list contains more than 100 members, mostly from the UK, and can
be joined at: http://lists.cs.nott.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/fun
Date
----
We normally meet three afternoons per year, around February,
May and November. The meetings are usually held during term
time, to provide a respite from teaching. Propose a few
possible dates for your meeting on the FUN mailing list, and
select the date that is most suitable. You may wish to set up
a doodle poll (www.doodle.com) to make it easy to record
preferences, with a deadline for responding. Many Universities
have no teaching on Wednesday afternoons, so it may be a good
to schedule the meeting then. Avoid Fridays, as some people
will not wish to be late home prior to the weekend.
Room
----
We normally have 40-60 participants, so to be on the safe
side a seminar room that can hold 60 people is required.
The room should have a data projector and a whiteboard or
blackboard. There is no need to provide a computer, as
speakers expect to bring their own laptop for talks these
days; if this is a problem, there will almost certainly
be someone present with a laptop that can be borrowed.
Check the availability of rooms prior to suggesting possible
dates, make provisional bookings if this is possible, and
confirm the booking as soon as the date is fixed. A room
with natural light would be best if this is available,
but this is minor consideration compared to size.
Schedule
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The talks normally start at 1.45pm, and finish at 5.30pm. We
usually have one longer keynote (45 minutes), three or four
shorter talks (30 minutes), and two tea/coffee breaks (30
minutes). A sample schedule is as follows:
1.45 - 2.30 : talk
2.30 - 3.00 : break
3.00 - 3.30 : talk
3.30 - 4.00 : talk
4.00 - 4.30 : break
4.30 - 5.00 : talk
5.00 - 5.30 : talk
The breaks are very important from a social point of view, and
shouldn't be reduced in length to accommodate more talks. It
is fine to drop one 30-minute talk and extend the breaks to 45
minutes; or make all the talks 30 minutes and start at 2.00; or
any of various other permutations. The cost for tea/coffee needs
to be covered by the host research group or department, as FUN has
no funding. It's fine to only provide tea/coffee at one break if
costs are tight. Do let us know if this is a problem.
Speakers
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Once the date is fixed, the local organiser puts together the
programme of speakers. Send a message to the FUN mailing list
to solicit offers of talks, and you may also wish to make one
or two personal invitations, although as noted above FUN has
no funding to cover the costs of invited speakers. Please run
any invited speakers and the proposed programme by the FUN
steering committee (Jeremy, Graham and Conor) before sending
out invitations or notifications. There are often more talks
offered than can be accommodated. It's normal to have at least
one local speaker, at least one student, and to try and ensure
a balance between different kinds of talks (theory, practice,
tools, etc) so that there is something for everyone.
Lunch
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For people who are arriving early and wish to meet up with
other participants, nominate a place where people can meet for
lunch and a chat -- in practice this is often a departmental
common room where people can bring along sandwiches purchased
on route. If you happen to be in the fortunate position of
being able to provide some lunch catering (e.g. from a generous
employer, or a grant that needs to be spent up), that would
be a bonus for the participants, but is by no means expected,
and has only been the case once or twice in the past.
Pub/Dinner
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After the talks, we normally go to a nearby pub for an hour,
to allow some socialising time prior to dinner, as some people
may not be able to stay. Dinner is normally early (around
6.30pm), for the benefit of those who have a long journey home.
Asking people in advance who may come for dinner has proved
unreliable -- the best option is to pass round a sheet on
the day, and make a suitable booking during the meeting.
Dinner has often been a curry in the past, but this is not a
strict requirement, despite what some people think! A good
option would be a reasonably priced venue (around 20-25 pounds
per person including a couple of drinks) that is within easy
reach of the local railway station, and can cope with a large
party (around 20-30 usually come for dinner.) The organiser
does not have to be responsible for the bill, although it helps
if someone takes care of computing the tip, dividing by the number
of diners, maybe making adjustments for those who had no alcoholic
drinks or are on a tighter budget, and collecting the money.
Advertising
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Once all the arrangements are in place, advertise the meeting
on the FUN mailing list. The information provided in this
advert will be copied onto the FUN web pages.
On the day
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Put up some signs to direct people to the where they should
go, and let your reception staff know about the meeting so
they can direct people too. It would also be useful to provide
a roll of sticky labels for people to write their name on --
there is no need to provide name badges. The local organiser
says a few words at the start, chairs the first talk, and
recruits chairs for the other talks (on the fly is fine).
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